Multiple golf course



1964 H. NEWKIRK 3,

MULTIPLE cow COURSE Filed July 2, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN V EN TOR.

Nov. 10, 1964 E. H. NEWKIRK 3,156,470

MULTIPLE GOLF COURSE Filed July 2, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 JNVENTOR. E0642II. jliwz/pz United States Patent 3,156,470 MUL'HPLE GOLF COURSE EdgarH. Newkirk, 181.7% Malcolm, Los Angeles, Calif. Filed July 2, 1959, Ser.No. 824,586 2 Claims. (Cl. 273-476) normally broken down into twoareasof nine holes e' ach, or three areas of six holes each,orsometirnestwo areas of seven holes each and a thirdareaahavingfourfholes.

The designing of such a golf playing. field is: a fliighly} skilled art,each area or group of holes,- and each individual hole, being carefullydesigned toil-ac'comrn'o ate the golf play of various levels and gradesof'skill from the better male golfer and top-skilled femalegolfer ondown to the lesser skilled male and female players, as 'well as theyounger golfers. Normally, four separate grades of skill are consideredin designing and constructing a golf course.

Each hole of a golf course comprises a tee area, a fairway, rough areas,and a green which embodies a cup. The theory in the game of golf, isthat the player uses a weapon, the golf club selected, to strike thegolf ball from a given starting point, the tee, successively strikingthe ball with selected golf clubs having the desired lofts, lengths,weights, balances, degrees of torque and tension in the shafts, andgrips, moving the ball over the fairway (avoiding the roughs, ifpossible) to the green, and into the cup provided on the green, in theleast possible number of separate strokes.

The player pits his best skill as an offense in moving the ball from thetee into the cup on the green in the least possible number of strokes,against the defense provided by the designer of the golf course, namely,natural and pseudo-natural hazards. Natural hazards provided includesuch things as the use of hazards of terrain and topography, includingundulations, contours, obstacles and obstructions, and including the useof trees, shrubs, bushes and other vegetation, and including the textureand height of grasses which effect the lie and roll of the ball. Byproperly choosing the direction taken by the fairway, the designer canutilize the weather, including wind, rain, cold, heat and sun, asobstructions to the golfer.

Pseudo-natural hazards which can be built by the designer, include themaking of contours and undulations to direct the play of the ball, theprovision of sand traps, water holes, deliberately placed vegetation,such as trees and shrubs, the placement of wind breaks, and the like.

Coupled with these various defenses provided on the fairways, a systemof penalization is sused, which adds strokes to the golfers scorewhenever a ball goes past a designated boundary line, or must be movedout of a difiicult spot to be played, or is lost.

The defense against the golfer is carried into the green areas by theuse of contours, undulations, plateaus, rolls, swales, grass grains andthe like, all of which control the direction and amount of movement ofthe ball when it encounters and is played on the green area. The use ofvarious fine grasses to control the change of pace or speed on the greenis also used as a defense, the texture of the grass insofar as itcontrols the ball speed being measured by the normal overroll measuringindex (commonly referred to as nomi).

In view of the above complications involved in the designing and makingof a golf course, it will be apparent that it is extremely ditficu'lt,if not impossible, to design a conventional golf course which has asingle circuit or route that is taken by the golfers, in which thecourse is sufficiently difficult and interesting for the better golfers,while at the same time not being too difficult, and hence unenjoyable,by the regular or fair golfers, or practically impossible for the lesserskilled or youthful golfers. Normally, in the design and construction ofa golf course. the hazards must be substantially weakened or reducedfrom those that would be the most desirable and interesting for highlyskilled golfers, in order to accommodate the ordinary and lesser skilledgolfers. This means that the fairways are made relatively Wide, withrelatively few .out-of-bounds markings to the right of the fairways,with the rough areas somewhat minimized, with mounds and contourstending to keep the ball in the. play area rather than causing it tomove outside of the play area. Also, the number of obstructions to thegreen areas'ftends to be minimized, with fewer traps and trenchesfthefront portions of. the greens being simpler than they might otherwisebe. All this, of course, tendsto make the golf course routine anduninteresting for the bettergolfers, who actually do a large portion ofthe over-all golf playing.

Another problem in connection with convenional golf courses which have asingle circuit or route is that the tee areas and the front portions ofthe greens receive a high concentration of use, and hence'are extremelydifficult to keep in good shape. This is particularly true in golfcourses where play occurs at night, because of the fact that the turf ismore easily ruined when it is damp.

A further problem in connection with conventional golf courses whichhave only a single circuit or route that is followed by the golfers, isthat the poorer and younger golfers normally have an extremely difficulttime completing any given single hole within a reasonable number ofstrokes, and are therefore often discouraged to the point where theylose interest in the game. This is particularly true of young womtn andgirls who have a very short hitting range.

In view of these and other problems in connection with conventional golfcourses having a single circuit or route that is followed by thegolfers, it is the principal object of my present invention to provide anovel golf course in which a plurality of alternative routes may befollowed by the players.

Another object of my present invention is to. provide a novel golfcourse of the character described which is alternatively reversible.

.Ano'ther object of my present invention is to provide a golf course ofthe character described embodying a plurality of different routes orcircuits to be followed by the golfers, with one such route or circuithaving substantially more difficult hazards of the character describedabove than another such circuit.

Another object of my present invention is to provide a novel golf courseof the character described in which each of the greens is provided withmore than one fairway approach, whereby more than one route or circuitmay be taken by the golfers, to provide the same effect as a pluralityof different golf courses, Without requiring more than the normal numberof greens of a single golf course.

Another object of my present invention is to provide a multiple golfcourse of the character described in which each of a plurality ofdifferent circuits involves the use of its own separate tees and greenapproaches, thereby greatly reducing the wear on the tee areas andgreens.

A further object of my present invention is to provide a novel golfcourse construction of the character described in which an additionalgreen is placed on each fairway in order to accommodate the poorer andyounger golfers, so that the length of each hole will be greatlyshortened for such golfers, and so that these additional greens can bealternatively used by the regular golfers to reduce wear on the normalgreens at the ends of the fairways.

Other objects and advantages of my present invention will be apparentfrom the following description and claims, the novelty of my inventionconsisting in the features of construction, the combinations of parts,the novel relations of the members, and the relative proportioning,disposition and operation thereof, all as is more completely describedherein, and as is more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of my presentspecification:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a nine hole golf course which isalternatively reversible in accordance with my present invention.

FIGURE 2 is a plan view of several of the holes shown in FIGURE 1, withadditional greens placed about midway along the fairways.

FIGURE 3 is a plan view of a typical green used in connection with mypresent invention, having a relatively easy approach, and a relativelydifficult approach.

FIGURE 4 is a view in the direction 44 in FIGURE 3, illustrating theappearance of the realtively easy approach to the green of FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 5 is a view in the direction 5-5 in FIGURE 3, illustrating theappearance of the difiicult approach to the green of FIGURE 3.

Referring to my drawings, and at first particularly to FIGURE 1 thereof,I have for convenience illustrated a golf course having nine holes.However, it is to be understood that my present invention is equallyadaptable for use in connection with a golf course having any number ofholes, such as seven holes, nine holes, eighteen holes, or the like.

The golf course which I have illustrated in FIGURE 1 is reversible inaccordance with my present invention, with the tees and fairways of onedirection being illustrated in solid lines, and the tees and fairwaysgoing in the opposite direction being illustrated in dotted lines.

The successive solid line holes, taking them in the order of the circuitor route followed by the golfer, are A4, A-2, A-S, A-4, A-S, A-6, A-7,A-8 and A-9.

Similarly, the successive dotted line holes, taken in the circuit orroute followed by the golfer, are 3-1, B2, B3, 3-4, B5, B6, B-7, B-8 andB-9.

It will be noted that each of the A, solid line holes, has its ownseparate tee, and that similarly each of the B, dotted line holes hasits own separate tee, so that a total of eighteen tees are provided.These tees involve very little upkeep as compared with the greens, sothat this duplication of tees does not involve much expense or time.However, it does provide a great saving in the usual very hard wear onthe tees, so that there is a substantial over-all saving in teemaintenance time and ex ense.

It will also be noted that only nine greens will be required, thosedesignated by the numerals 1t 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 and 26. Each ofthese greens has two completely independent approaches, one for a solidline fairway, and the other for a dotted line fairway. Thus, forexample, the green 19 is approached by the solid line hole A-l and thedotted line hole In this manner, alternative use of the A" or the Bholes will provide a rest for the un-used approach portion of eachgreen, and will result in the same effect as two entirely different golfcourses.

It will be apparent from this construction that one of the groups ofholes, for example, the A holes, may involve relatively rough hazards onthe A or solid line fairways and on the corresponding approaches to thegreens, with the portions of the greens themselves facing the A"fairways also being relatively diflicult; these hazards being like thosedescribed in detail in the introductory part of this specification. Theother group of holes, the B or dotted line holes, may involve relativelyeasy hazards.

My type of green construction involving a relatively dilficult portionpresented to the relatively difficult fairways, such as the A fairways,and a relatively easy portion presented to the relatively easy fairways,such as the B fairways, is best illustrated in FIGURES 3, 4 and 5, inwhich a typical green according to my construction is illustrated, beingdesignated by the reference numeral 23, with the line 30 generallydividing the easy and the difiicult approaches. The relatively easyapproach portion .32 shown in FIGURE 4 is seen to be relatively smoothin contour, to present a fairly simple problem to the more inexperiencedgolfers. In contrast, the more diflicult approach portion 34 is seen tobe diflicultly contoured, having an added hazard in the sand trap 36.The cup 38 is placed on the fairly open face of the easy side 32, sothat the ball may stick near the cup on the side 32, but not on the moredifficult side 34.

In FIGURE 2 of the drawings, the holes Ad and A-2 are illustrated withadditional greens 4% and 42 thereon, respectively. This permits theoriginal holes A4. and A-2 to be played, if desired, or, alternatively,four holes can be played by younger or more inexperienced golfers, toshorten the fairways, thus providing new dotted line (in FIGURE 2) teesand fairways 44, 46, 48 and 50. It will be apparent that these smallerholes can be made reversible in a manner similar to that heretoforedescribed, if desired, and also that various circuits can be planned forthe course utilizing these additional greens, all within the scope ofthe present invention.

This provision of an extra green in the middle of each fairway providesan excellent prep or preparatory golf course for young or beginninggolfers.

Although I have illustrated just two separate circuits in my reversiblegolf course of FIGURE 1, it will be apparent that the number ofcircuits, and green approaches to each green, is not limited to two.

In order to carry through my reversible theme in connection with myreversible golf course, I presently prefer to apply a name which can bereversed to my course. For example, the course as played in onedirection may be called Glenbrook, while the other circuit would becalled Brookglen.

It is to be understood that the form of my invention herein shown anddescribed is my preferred embodiment and that various changes in theshape, size and arrangement of parts may be resorted to withoutdeparting from the spirit of my invention or the scope of my appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. An outdoor golf course having a plurality of separate golfingcircuits with full-size fairways and greens, said golf course including:a first circuit comprising a plurality of first circuit fairways eachhaving a front and a rear end, a first circuit tee operatively disposedat the front end of each of said first circuit fairways, and a separategreen operatively connected with the rear end of each of said firstcircuit fairways; and a second circuit comprising a plurality of secondcircuit fairways each having a front and a rear end, a second circuittee operatively disposed at the front end of each of said second circuitfairways, and operative connections between the rear ends of said secondcircuit fairways and the respective said greens, each of said secondcircuit fairways approaching its respective green from a differentdirection than the respective said first circuit fairway approaches thatsame green, whereby a single set of greens is alternatively usable intwo separate golfing circuits on said golf course.

2. The golf course of claim 1 in which the portion of each green facingits respective second circuit fairway has a topography whichsubstantially differs from the topography of the portion of that samegreen facing its respective first circuit fairway, said difference intopography being such that said portion of each green facing its secondcircuit fairway is more difficult to play than said portion of that samegreen facing its respective first circuit fairway, whereby said secondcircuit is more difiicult to play than said first circuit.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

1. AN OUTDOOR GOLF COURSE HAVING A PLURALITY OF SEPARATE GOLFING CIRCUITS WITH FULL-SIZE FAIRWAYS AND GREENS, SAID GOLF COURSE INCLUDING: A FIRST CIRCUIT COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF FIRST CIRCUIT FAIRWAYS EACH HAVING A FRONT AND A REAR END, A FIRST CIRCUIT TEE OPERATIVELY DISPOSED AT THE FRONT END OF EACH OF SAID FIRST CIRCUIT FAIRWAYS, AND A SEPARATE GREEN OPERATIVELY CONNECTED WITH THE REAR END OF EACH OF SAID FIRST CIRCUIT FAIRWAYS; AND A SECOND CIRCUIT COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF SECOND CIRCUIT FAIRWAYS EACH HAVING A FRONT AND A REAR END, A SECOND CIRCUIT TEE OPERATIVELY DISPOSED AT THE FRONT END OF EACH OF SAID SECOND CIRCUIT FAIRWAYS, AND OPERATIVE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE REAR ENDS OF SAID SECOND CIRCUIT FAIRWAYS AND THE RESPECTIVE SAID GREENS, EACH OF SAID SECOND CIRCUIT FAIRWAYS APPROACHING ITS RESPECTIVE GREEN FROM A DIFFERENT DIRECTION THAN THE RESPECTIVE SAID FIRST CIRCUIT FAIRWAY APPROACHES THAT SAME GREEN, WHEREBY A SINGLE SET OF GREENS IS ALTERNATIVELY USABLE IN TWO SEPARATE GOLFING CIRCUITS ON SAID GOLF COURSE. 